He can now drive again and go outside without people staring at him, he said. Children don’t run away.
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“My family and I took a trip to Disney World this past June and I swam in the pool with them”. “That’s something I had not done in 15 years!” When asked about what his biggest challenge is every day he responded: “Well, I got five kids”. It’s allowed me to do things with my family that I had not been able to do.
“I guess most of you are wondering how I’m doing”, he told reporters at a press conference Wednesday.
“I feel great. I honestly do”, Patrick Hardison, 42, marveled at a news conference held Wednesday at NYU Langone Medical Center, where the surgery was performed.
Mr Hardison has no scars on his face, and although he resembles his old self, some of his features are different.
The surgery is part of a transplant revolution in recent years that includes penis transplants in wounded soldiers, the double hand transplant in a young boy, and a uterus transplant in a woman who was unable to bear children.
Over the past year, Hardison took medications daily, met with Rodriguez each month for a checkup, and underwent additional surgeries, including the removal of his abdominal feeding tube and the breathing tube in his trachea – a procedure that took place ahead of schedule due to Hardison’s quicker-than-expected recovery. The details of their work were described in a series of articles in journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery earlier this year.
Eduardo Rodriquez, who led the surgery, said he was amazed by his patient’s recovery, saying it had “surpassed all of our expectations”.
“We have entered a new era in transplant surgery”, he added. “The work being done is pushing the boundaries of medicine and surgery and opening up new avenues to restore the lives of people like Patrick. It’s a very exciting time”.
His 21-year-old daughter, Alison, said she cried after seeing him because she was so relieved.
After being badly burned in a 2001 blaze, Hardison, a volunteer firefighter, has received what appears to be the most extensive face transplant ever, covering his head and much of his neck. Now sharing joint custody of their minor children, Hardison hopes to begin a career in motivational speaking.
Hardison is not scheduled for any additional procedures, but the medical team will continue to monitor the next 12 months of his recovery, during which his facial swelling should continue to go down, Rodriguez said.
He explained, “We believe this has much to do with the methodical approach we took in the matching process to ensure that Patrick’s donor provided the most favorable match”.
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In fact, there have been three significant landmarks in Hardison’s recovery: the absence of a rejection episode, the normal function of his new eyelids, and the execution and achievement of the most extensive soft-tissue clinical face transplant to date. Before the transplant, Hardison had been homebound because of his lack of vision and unable to perform regular, daily tasks and in danger of losing his eyesight.
